The 2026 global roadmap for textile-integrated wearable technologies in health

Wearable and textile-based technologies are transforming health monitoring by enabling continuous, non-invasive, and context-aware assessment of physiological and biochemical signals in daily life. Advances in flexible electronics, conductive fibers, smart materials, and artificial intelligence have driven a shift from rigid, device-centric wearables toward textile-integrated and garment-based systems capable of distributed sensing, actuation, energy harvesting, storage, and communication. This roadmap provides a textile-centric overview of the current state and future trajectory of wearable technologies for healthcare, with electronic textiles positioned as a distinct and strategically important class within the broader wearable ecosystem. We synthesize progress across textile-integrated sensing, therapeutic and protective garments, textile body-area networks, energy-autonomous systems, and embedded computing, while critically examining challenges related to signal reliability, manufacturability, scalability, data governance, regulation, and equity. Market trends and adoption patterns are discussed to contextualize translational pathways from laboratory prototypes to clinically deployable and scalable textile systems. By identifying key scientific, technological, and societal priorities, this roadmap outlines actionable directions to accelerate the integration of textile-based wearable technologies into preventive, personalized, and decentralized healthcare.

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Publication Details

Journal
Physiological Measurement
Published
2026-07-02
DOI
https://doi.org/10.1088/1361-6579/ae85b0
Primary Topic
Advanced Sensor and Energy Harvesting Materials
Type
article
Field-Weighted Citation Impact
0.00

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article

The 2026 global roadmap for textile-integrated wearable technologies in health

Charalampos Pitsalidis, Xiao Xiao, Eduardo Gil, Neil Tom et al.
Physiological Measurement
Advanced Sensor and Energy Harvesting Materials
article

The 2026 global roadmap for textile-integrated wearable technologies in health

Charalampos Pitsalidis, Xiao Xiao, Eduardo Gil, Neil Tom, Valeria Galli, Shekh Md Mahmudul Islam, Jim Williams, Chakaveh Ahmadizadeh, Andrea S. Carlini, Mehmet Rasit Yuce, Rosa H. M. Chan, Harry Akerman, Yang Wei, Vi Khanh Truong, Daniel Franklin, Shaohong Luo, Carlo Menon, Aymen Alian, Shadrack O. Aboagye, Emiliano Schena, Bronson W. Philippa, Stephanie Baker, Y. Li, Ahmadreza Argha, N.M. White, Carlo Massaroni, Oriella Gnarra, J M Chen, Robert Riener, Alexander V. Shokurov, Junyi Yin, Weifeng Yang, Ahmed Albagdady, Anna‐Maria Pappa, Nigel Hamilton Lovell, Amjad Ali, Mahmoud Wagih, John Allen, Mohamed Elgendi, Darpit Dave, Pablo Laguna, Xiaoyu Guo, Štefan Borik, Diego Páez-Granados, Bushara Fatma, Elif Sila Akbulut, Nazmi B. Alsaafeen, Laurance Papale, Daniele Vinella, Haipeng Liu, Dingchang Zheng, P. Bertemes-Filho, Raquel Bailón, Karmen Markov, Sooyoung Kim, Vincent Chan, Steven Steinhubl, Jessilyn Dunn, Kanika Dheman, William Alberto Cruz-Castaneda, Roy T H Cheung, Andrés Felipe Pineda-Alpízar, Katsuhiro Sasagaki, Chris Awai Easthope, Vincent Chi Kwan Cheung, Jesus Lazaro, Michael D Dickey, Brett Hannigan, Mohammed Ruhan Goltay, Hamid Alinejad-Rokny, John Hunt
article en

Abstract

Wearable and textile-based technologies are transforming health monitoring by enabling continuous, non-invasive, and context-aware assessment of physiological and biochemical signals in daily life. Advances in flexible electronics, conductive fibers, smart materials, and artificial intelligence have driven a shift from rigid, device-centric wearables toward textile-integrated and garment-based systems capable of distributed sensing, actuation, energy harvesting, storage, and communication. This roadmap provides a textile-centric overview of the current state and future trajectory of wearable technologies for healthcare, with electronic textiles positioned as a distinct and strategically important class within the broader wearable ecosystem. We synthesize progress across textile-integrated sensing, therapeutic and protective garments, textile body-area networks, energy-autonomous systems, and embedded computing, while critically examining challenges related to signal reliability, manufacturability, scalability, data governance, regulation, and equity. Market trends and adoption patterns are discussed to contextualize translational pathways from laboratory prototypes to clinically deployable and scalable textile systems. By identifying key scientific, technological, and societal priorities, this roadmap outlines actionable directions to accelerate the integration of textile-based wearable technologies into preventive, personalized, and decentralized healthcare.

Physiological Measurement
Universidade Tecnológica Federal do Paraná (BR), North Carolina State University (US), Hong Kong Polytechnic University (HK), University of California, Santa Barbara (US), Università Campus Bio-Medico (IT), University of California, Los Angeles (US), Universidade do Estado de Santa Catarina (BR), City University of Hong Kong (HK), Duke University (US), Khalifa University of Science and Technology (AE), Chinese University of Hong Kong (HK), University of Toronto (CA), Purdue University West Lafayette (US), Universidad de Zaragoza (ES), UCLA Health (US), Australian Regenerative Medicine Institute (AU), North Central State College (US), Southampton General Hospital (GB), UNSW Sydney (AU), Yale University (US), ETH Zurich (CH), University of Southampton (GB), Nottingham Trent University (GB), Monash University (AU), Coventry University (GB), University of Glasgow (GB), James Cook University (AU)
National Science Foundation, American Heart Association, Cancer Research UK, National Institute for Health and Care Research, European Commission, Coventry University, Schweizerischer Nationalfonds zur Förderung der Wissenschaftlichen Forschung, University of New South Wales, University of Toronto, Khalifa University of Science, Technology and Research, National Institutes of Health, Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada, Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council, Division of Materials Research, Clinical and Translational Science Institute, University of California, Los Angeles
Openalex Percentile: Top 13%
Advanced Sensor and Energy Harvesting Materials
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